Playing The “Shifty Cell” Game
Have you ever found yourself happily working in a large MS Excel worksheet only to discover that you need some cells in the middle of the thing?
You’d add rows or columns, but that will mess with everything else in the worksheet. (You know—data way off yonder in the far reaches of the worksheet will suddenly be displaced causing mass chaos in the middle of… Continue reading
The Wonders Of F2 In MS Excel
When you’re working in Excel and you need to edit something that is already in a cell what do you do?
Do you click on the cell, then click into the formula bar to edit the contents?
Sounds like a lot of clicking?
Yeah, it did to me too.
For people who don’t really care for their mouse, it can turn into a… Continue reading
Here’s the situation: you have a really great MS PowerPoint presentation—it covers “everything”. It’s a masterpiece, if you do say so yourself.
Now you need a slightly different presentation—this one should cover only part of the “masterpiece” mentioned above.
What do you do?
You could simply skip through the unneeded slides while giving the presentation. Not a very slick or wonderful way to do it—distracting for the audience—definitely not your… Continue reading
Templates, Templates, Templates
I often get requests from readers for templates. You know, where they can they download templates for use with the MS Office Suite.
Now, while I’m sure there are many places you can look—many people don’t seem to know that you can download quite a few directly from the Microsoft site.
Next time you’re looking for some sort of template of anything, give this a click.
Need A Date?
If you use one of the major word processing programs, you have the ability to place a date into any document you’re working on. Here’s how to do it with a some of the more popular ones:
In MS Word, WordPerfect, or Windows WordPad:
Just click the Insert menu and select Date & Time…
A screen will pop up that gives you a host of different date… Continue reading
Q:
Someone e-mailed me an MS Works file. Can I open it in MS Word?
A:
Word can open a Works file, no problem. Save the file to disk then go to Word. Click the little Open button on the toolbar and make sure Word is set to look for either all files or Works files. Once you locate the file, double-click to open .
Remember, a good… Continue reading
Get Into Style
Did you know that MS Word can get you in style with just a few clicks?
No?
Well, good news—it can.
(Bad news—it’s style for your text and has nothing to do with the latest fashions. Sorry, no free shopping trips.)
But… back to the good news.
The first thing we need to discuss is a very good question.
What is a style in MS Word?
To… Continue reading
For My Eyes Only
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re working on sensitive material in MS Excel and someone walks up behind you?
What do you do?
Do you quickly minimize the entire program?
Yeah, I’ve done that too. But what if you need Excel to work on something else with the person who came in?
You could go through the hassle of closing and saving the… Continue reading
Controlling Runaway Clichés And Other Grammar Problems
Did you know that you have some control over the type of grammar mistakes MS Word looks for?
No?
I didn’t either until I stumbled through some information about having Word’s grammar check catch common cliches in my writing. As I started investigating the options I discovered just how many choices we really do have.
Want to know where to find your options?… Continue reading
MS Green And Red Helpers?
I’m sure by now you’ve run into the red and green underlines in the MS Office Suite programs.
And I’m also pretty sure that you’ve figured out that the red underline is for a misspelled word and the green underline is for grammar problems.
But, did you know that the program could do more than let you know you have a problem, it can help… Continue reading
Use It, Lose It, or Momentarily Disable It
Decisions, decisions, decisions…
These are your choices when dealing with the AutoComplete in MS Word.
To “Use It” you need to decide to accept the AutoComplete entry (exactly what’s in the bubble) and then hit the Enter key. The entire text string will be completely filled in and you’re ready to move on.
Good – now that you know how to “Use… Continue reading
MS Word’s AutoComplete Feature
Did you know that MS Word has a function to AutoComplete text?
No?
I bet you did – you just didn’t know what it was called.
Think about it. I’m sure you know about the little yellow box of text that “pops up” at what appears to be mystical moments during the day.
Well, as you may have guessed by now, those moments aren’t so mystical… Continue reading
Agenda Slides In MS PowerPoint
Have you ever found yourself creating an agenda slide for a presentation you’ve just completed?
You know—a slide at or near the beginning that lets the audience know what you plan to cover.
What did you do?
Did you simply put together a new slide containing the titles used on the other slides?
Yes?
Yeah, me too.
Want to save a lot of time?
What… Continue reading
Double Click on a MS PowerPoint Slide
Did you know that when you’re working in MS PowerPoint’s Slide Sorter you can double click on any slide to be taken back to the Slide or Normal View (depends on the version of PowerPoint) to edit your slide.
No more looking for the correct button in the bottom left of the window, no more View menu, no more searching… Continue reading
Did you know that in MS PowerPoint Ctrl + Enter does something really cool?
For my keyboard people here’s a little item I ran into today while doing some good old PowerPoint work.
While working, I found that Ctrl + Enter will move you from text box to text box within your slide.
Very cool—this one can save you some mouse-to-keyboard time.
But, there’s a catch.
(Of course—isn’t there… Continue reading
Setting Slide Transitions Quickly in MS PowerPoint
If you’re a PowerPoint user then you probably have, at one time or another, done some work with slide transitions.
As I’ve worked with people I’ve noticed that they go through the routine of viewing a slide in the slide view (one slide at a time), use the Slide Show menu / Slide Transitions choice to set the transition effect, then move to… Continue reading
Underline With Pizzazz In MS Word
Have you ever wished you had a better way to emphasize your point? (Besides raising your voice of course. MS Word seems pretty immune to that tactic. Too bad – I can be pretty good at that one when I need it!)
You’ve done the normal bold, color change and underline thing. But, this time you’re looking for a little something “extra”. (Like the… Continue reading
The Key To Print Preview
Many of us find the Print Preview option in MS Word a very useful feature.
It’s an excellent way to double check your layout before you waste paper and ink / toner printing something that really isn’t ready to go.
I don’t know about you, but I usually get to the Print Preview window either through the File menu or by using the button on… Continue reading
Q:
Whenever I start my computer, this little gray box that has some photos in it appears on the top of my desktop. Can you tell me what it is and how I can get rid of it? It layers itself on top of every program I open and is annoying!
A:
Oh, boy… the dreaded Works Portfolio. It’s great if you’re inserting images all the time, but… Continue reading
Working Mouse-Free With The MS Office Assistant
Here’s another little gem for the mouse-free enthusiasts.
This one applies to your handy, dandy Office Assistant. (You know – the annoying paperclip guy you only open when you absolutely have to.)
To be honest, this is one area where I never even thought of using key combinations to speed up my work – but it can be done.
Let’s start with some… Continue reading
Quick Word Erasing
We all know that the Backspace key will delete one character to the left of the cursor and that the Delete key will delete one character to the right of the cursor.
But… have you ever tried using the Ctrl key in combination with either the Backspace or Delete keys?
No?
Well – then you should because you’re missing out! (OK – maybe it’s not as good… Continue reading
Where Is This Located On The Worksheet? I Can’t Tell From The Printout!
Ever wish you had your gridlines, column letters and row numbers on the printout of an MS Excel worksheet?
On some of the larger worksheets, or worksheets where there aren’t a lot of labels on the data, this could be the little “miracle” you’ve been looking for.
(OK – maybe the word “miracle” is a… Continue reading
Now Why Are These Columns Numbered?
Here’s a little tidbit that comes from a reader question.
The reader was having difficulty with the Excel labeling of the columns. Instead of letters for column headers, she had numbers!
(Did you notice the cell name given in the corner? Obviously not what most of us are used to.)
It was driving her crazy since it didn’t match the other systems she… Continue reading
The Ultimate Word Keyboard Shortcut List
Quite often I receive email requesting complete lists for keyboard shortcuts.
Unfortunately, I never really have one. Most of the lists I put in this newsletter are lists I compile from a variety of references.
And… to be quite honest, I wasn’t too worried about the “whole” list because most people I’ve worked with have difficulty learning that much material all at once.
But… Continue reading
Now Where Was I?
Have you ever found yourself looking for the last place you were working in a long Word document?
You know, it’s a 10 – 20 – 30 page monster and you were working on something somewhere in the middle when you last saved and closed the document.
When you re-opened the document the cursor was on page one, top left corner. Now here you are patiently… Continue reading
Cell Hide And Seek In MS Excel
Have you ever found yourself trying to hide the contents of a single cell in MS Excel?
What did you do?
Most of us know how to hide a complete column / row – did you put the information in its own column then hide the entire column?
Or did you find yourself putting the information in the “far reaches” of the spread… Continue reading
Select Several Objects At Once
In MS PowerPoint, you can select several objects with one click and drag of the mouse.
Replacing the old “Shift + mouse click (repeated over and over on each individual object) routine” we have the lovely and wonderful one click and drag option.
Most people are aware of this neat little trick on the desktop. Where you click on the desktop, hold down the left… Continue reading
